28,000 illegal attempts to enter UK foiled
New figures reveal the increasingly desperate battle to protect borders
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Independent Minds
The number of illegal immigrants caught trying to enter Britain from the continent has nearly trebled in the past five years, new figures show.
Nearly 20,000 attempts by immigrants to enter Britain illegally were thwarted in Calais last year compared to 7,500 in 2004.
A further 9,000 were stopped in Coquelle and Dunkirk, Belgium and Paris. It is not known how many more immigrants succeeded in outwitting the UK border forces.
The Home Office figures paint a picture of an increasingly desperate battle between the UK Border Agency and the growing number of foreigners who believe they have a chance of a better life in the UK.
This year, immigration officers found 13 Afghanis and two Iranians hiding in a lorry-load of light bulbs. The Hungarian-registered lorry was stopped at Calais before it could board a ferry across the Channel.
Similarly, failed attempts were made by two Vietnamese men concealed in a consignment of nappies. And last year, border officers thwarted a bid by four Afghans who were found in lorry-load of champagne.
The immigration crisis in Calais, the temporary home to thousands of immigrants trying to come to Britain, has worsened in recent weeks.
On Monday, there were reports that the French town was under siege after hundreds of protesters arrived to demand an end to border controls between France and Britain. Riot police were on alert in the streets after intelligence reports raised fears of widespread violence.
The record number of successful interventions by UK border officers has been largely due to a marked increase in immigration controls and freight searches carried out by British officers on the Continent. Last year, there were 738,474 searches.
There have also been developments in methods used to detect people who are trying to cross the border. Body detection dogs are trained to smell humans who are inside vehicles simply by sniffing the air outside.
Heartbeat detector sheds contain mobile computers that uses four special vibration sensors to detect movement inside a vehicle.
And carbon dioxide probes detect carbon dioxide, the gas which is expelled by the lungs.
The Border and Immigration minister Phil Woolas said: "The UK has one of the strongest borders in the world. We work closely with our French partners to tackle illegal immigration using state-of-the-art technology such as carbon dioxide and heartbeat detectors.
"Last year alone, UK Border Agency staff at our French and Belgium controls not only searched more than one million lorries but also stopped 28,000 attempts to cross the Channel illegally.
"The illegal migrants in France are not queuing to get into Britain – they have been locked out," Mr Woolas said. But the Liberal Democrat spokesman for Home Affairs, Chris Huhne, said: "The huge rise in detections last year begs the question how many illegal immigrants were slipping through the net before.
"These figures are worrying precisely because they suggest that control at our borders is still far too weak, and for everyone detected there may be far more who are not.
"We need a national border force with police powers to ensure that only legal migrants enter Britain, and that the human trade in trafficked migrants is stopped and its organisers are brought to justice. Our borders have been too porous for too long.
"We need an immigration system that is firm but fair but we currently have neither."
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Comments
It seems to me as long as we allow people to print up fiat money there will be no place in the world where freedom can flourish.
If the Globalist oppose your efforts, paid for with real hard earned money, all they have to do is fire up the presses and shovel the money to any group that will oppose you.
Not only that but it seems they do it in such a way that the money to achieve THEIR goal is borrowed from them. Then we pay interest to a group outside of our country, like the Federal Reserve, on the creation and borrowing of OUR OWN money.
IN ESSENCE THEY BEAT US WITH OUR OWN STICK!
This racist arsehole has no business being a Govt Minister at all - he's ten times worse than Griffin or Brons. Woolas should be sacked instantly - a venally useless, racist, criminal thug.
No Amnesty, get rid of this dross !
They don't have a frigging clue. With this number intercepted the successes have to measure in the many thousands,
Another "triumph" for Fatuous Phil Woolas - the Government's official Wazzock.
Am I bitter? I am sick to the back teeth.
SMUGGLING IS EASY WITH THE GYPSIES
FALSE ID`S THEY USE THEIR SMART
WITH THOSE TYPES IT IS AN ART
UNLESS THERE IS A NEW STRICT ORDER
THEY`LL NEVER CONTROL THE UK BORDER
Critics of immigrants do not realise that most of these people come from nations afflicted by war, extreme poverty, where there are no jobs, no opportunities and they cannot count on government to support them or their loved ones.
Most illegal immigrants I've met deserve my profounf respect: they work very hard and are subject to horrendous conditions to support their loved ones back home. Even critics of immigration would probably do the same if they were under the same circumstances.
Unfortunately the vast majority of the UK media has painted an inaccurate picture of immigration and vilified immigrants, suggesting that they are here to steal jobs, spread disease and criminality.
Lula, the president of Brazil, said a few weeks during a speech in the UN: "do not blame immigrants for our current economic woes. They are just humans lookingh for better opportunities. The current crisis was caused by the bankers at the developed nations, precisely those who have always pointed fingers at the rest of the world and dictated how things should get done". He could not have sound more concise and precise words.
Please STOP XENOPHOBIA. One day you may become an illegal immigrant.
Victor Fraga
The rest of my family (white Americans) are treated shabbily by UK Border Patrol when they visit UK.
The real tragedy of illegal immigration on both sides of the Atlantic is that we never punish the companies that were employing illegals, at below minimum wages.
Did you get me?
I thank you
Firozali A Mulla
'The illegal migrants in France are not queuing to get into Britain' but this article implies that - "On Monday, there were reports that the French town was under siege after hundreds of protesters arrived to demand an end to border controls between France and Britain" - perhaps they are not forming an ordered queue but they are protesting that now they are in France they want to come to the UK without any hassle. Q. Do these people have French residency, are they 'legal immigrants' in France? Do they get deported back to France or do they give a load of crap about human rights and be told you can stay, just don't end up in the newspapers.
They found 28,000 people out of 734,000 searches - that is 3% though of course we cannot assume one person per truck. So what happened to the 28,000 successful attempts at detection - was the lorry seized and destroyed, were the drivers prosecuted? And we know people get through - could it maybe be that as much as one truck in ten has some unwanted third world parasites on it? Does this not imply complicity with the French and Belgian authorities who are keen to pass on their immigrant problem to the UK?
"We need an immigration system that is firm but fair but we currently have neither." So what actually does your job entail Mr Woolas? Get in mid morning, fuck the secretary, fill in expenses form, give some bullshit story to the press, go home? Being the man best in a position to do something about this a little more than hot air would be appreciated.
This whole thing reads like a story from the Daily Mail as do most of the comments added to the piece. Maybe that's where he got the non-story from? It certainly looks as if he got the spin on the Calais Camp from the Mail.
Calais is not "under siege after hundreds of protesters". There are 4-500 activists on the Camp site currently and at least that number of CRS officers on the streets (with more than 1,000 waiting in reserve) stopping anyone that looks vaguely as if they might be involved with the Camp. It is the French police that are laying siege to Calais not the protesters.